Top 10 2011

About a month behind everyone else but here's my top 10 albums of 2011 in no order:

Bon Iver - ST

The Head and the Heart - ST

Tune-Yards - w h o k i l l

Liturgy - Aesthetica

Decemberists - The King is Dead

Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact

My Morning Jacket - Circuital

Panda Bear - Tomboy

The Psychic Paramount - II

Radiohead - King of Limbs

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

also I am enjoying the Thao and Mirah album more than I thought i would, Kaputt by Destroyer was pretty creative and enjoyable ... like this year's Ariel Pink or something. Also I only listened to the Cults album twice, but it was pretty bubble gum pop enjoyable. There were a shit ton of disappointing albums this year including DCFC, Black Lips, and the Dodos.

Looking forward to the Beirut album a lot. And I just got the new Washed Out album which i think will just be a good album to put on in the background when you're doing pretty much anything. I didn't get why Toro y Moi was so well received, but then again I didn't like his first album all that much either.

Also I think neon indian is putting out another album this year, and das racist has their first non-mixtape coming out which should be awesome.

I feel pretty out of the loop with the indie music scene these days so i'm sure i've probably missed some great albums. Looking at some of the other lists out there I can say i haven't listened to about 75% of the albums on the various lists.

sleep deprived

a result of not being able to sleep is the ridiculous amount of random pondering that instead filled my head.

this morning i woke up with all these thoughts about what the fuck is wrong with the world. and why no one can resolve anything. i basically newb'd the shit out my twitter account, taking to it like some sort of random internet genius. the truth is most of my ideas are crackpot and probably not very good ones at all.

the last part that I almost ranted about was the state of the nation. 140 characters weren't going to be sufficient. i suppose the reason why i've kept this blog open is for just this situation.

basically, i love america. i love living here. i am grateful and thankful to whatever randomness ended up with my consciousness existing in my current surroundings. maybe, as many others probably are guilty of too, I don't take time often enough to realize how lucky we are. we always have cnn and fox news to remind us how much worse it can be. when you're not in the hell holes that they glorify though it seems surreal, like maybe that is just something they're showing on tv to make everyone feel good about their current lot.

i start there because the rest of my thoughts are related to what a shame the current state of the nation has become. it's silly to think about the importance and power of money. people say money doesn't buy happiness, but clearly it buys everything else. if you're not happy without out everything else, then you probably won't ever be happy.

the whole h129 thing has me kind of down. it's like ... yes i do not want the government to be a competitor in the marketplace, that is totally unfair. but no, i don't want the marketplace run by greedy ass clowns who only care about the bottom line instead. I mean look at the charts. Clearly the communication cartels can offer better service than they currently are. and yet every time they release a statement about increased speed, that comes at a price. An unnecessary cost. And if you're not getting an upgrade, then you're just getting your bill restructured to try and help them save money, read: make MORE money. It's hard for me to believe anyone who is in charge of making these decisions is not wealthy beyond their possible needs.

it literally makes me sad to think about the reason for the american revolution. freedom from tyranny. freedom from government rule. a government ruled by the people. i can get behind all of this. but at this point clearly these principles are not controlling our interests. a new tyranny has taken over. it's greed, it's money, it's power. it's the exact same reasons i'd say we revolted in the first place.

it just seems like this country is no longer built for the betterment of all people. It's built for the betterment of those who are willing to step on others. and that is just kind of sad. it's highly doubtful i will ever live to see a real change to this structure. even worse is feeling powerless. like i can't actually make a difference. it's sad to know that i've given up.

so next time you see me shopping at walmart, or filling up my gas tank, or listening to my ipod just know that it's only because i've given up, not because i'm unaware of what an asshole i've become.

simple physics

well, technically this isn't about physics at all. as a matter of fact there are probably numerous scientific or statistical or proven theories that can/should/will be ignored for the purpose of this post.

i mean the thing is i work in generalities. what is a generality? i don't know. but i said i work in them which means i have a general idea, which may or may not be true, but as long as i think that it's true, then it is.

i will at least give you my 'general' belief in generalities so you can taunt me about this later. There are two key points:

1. All of my thoughts are based on the premise 'in general', or meaning on a greater than 50% experience. It basically is tied almost to a binary sense of reality. Like if something happens more than 50% of the time it might as well be 100% of the time in my head. To break down the context of every event that occurs would be, at least in my head, an inefficiency of the time allotted alive. So basically, or 'in general' i see things as black and white even though the reality of that is obviously not so.

2. I totally lost track of my train of thought, if i can remember my second point supporting my 'generalities' philosophy i'll be sure to add it later.

The real point of this post though is that I've come up with a fairly simple equation for helping someone to find good music.

The start of this whole thing relies on some unavoidable randomness. But after you leap over what i would call an obvious randomness factor you can actually figure out how to find quality indie rock music, at least in the current cultural context.

As far as other genres of music I can't really speak to that since I don't have much experience so I'm not sure if my equation would support someone whose tastes are more strongly aligned with different genres.

the gist of the equation goes like this:

1. debut albums (EP's or LP's) are still completely random. You cannot tell, regardless of hype of how well a band's debut album will be until you listen to it.

2. any other album then follows: If the current/new non debut album by a band is immediately hailed as publicized as the band's best album the actual best album will be the one prior to it. This is very closely tied to elitism or hipsterism, but i believe that is a simple way of writing off more statistically relevant facts. Declaring elitism is a simple way of not having to pronounce yourself subject to mass appeal.

In a way it makes sense. A great album allows for more people to listen and enjoy. The album after said great album allows those who thoroughly enjoyed the great album to heap the praise they've been unable to do on a scale they feel is the act's great album truly deserved.

Here's a theoretical situation: Band A releases an album that for the purpose of this argument is their best album (lets just call it great). But no one really knows Band A. They get a few good reviews, but for the most part Band A is not well known and while their album is amazing the fact that it's not really being pushed due to lack of existing fan base / critical acclaim.

In simple mathematical terms: Lets say 10 people know about it, and they tell their 5 friends. There are now 50 friends. But the 5 friends didn't find out about the album lets say for a year. So even though we have 40 more fans of the album the time when they first experienced it is staggered over time and therefore the social awareness is generally a small, slowly growing result.

Now lets say it's been a few years and Band A is ready to release album 2. There are now 200 fans. The album comes out and it's good. This is the first time 190 people are allowed to show their pride in Band A, Album 1, and now Album 2. Do you think they hype machine is going to be a little louder this time?

Do you think there is a chance for an unreasonably high review for the new album? I would say if they band has never had critical success before on a large scale there's a good chance even if Album B is shitty it's probably going to be very highly rated, even if in fact the previous album is better.

The downside to this theory is that it only works in one context which is The Album Prior to the Album with the Highest Critical Praise Out of an Entire Discography Is The Musician(s) best actual album.

There is no working calculation after that. Once critical and social acceptance has been reached it's back to being a very random experience. Though I would say IN GENERAL the album after the highest critical praise is not as well regarded / accepted / enjoyed ... for lack of a better word it's usually not very good ... in any context.

Information Interpretation

I'm suddenly stricken with an internal debate regarding Information / Knowledge.

The basic quandary is thus: what is the point of information if you do nothing with it?

The possible scenarios I have argued to myself are:

- The point is that if you have the hypothetical information then when a situation comes up where it can be used it will be. This is a sort of 'wait and see approach'

- A secondary argument is that maybe it is unnecessary to be proactive, but that people, either because of insecurity or an attempt to provide due diligence share new information whenever they learn it with variable results.

-The other main branch then would be that no information is useful until it has been acted upon.

Maybe the question should be posed as Is the 'value' of information derived from it's initial creation or from it's resultant effects?

The answer stinks of a scenario where opposing viewpoints could select equally valid scenarios.

Someone would probably get shot.

Favorite tracks of 2010 ... enjoy

anarchy is dead, let freedom ring

in what is sure to be a drawn out, sporadic, and typically substance depraved event i've recently decided to declare my music op-ed and news hobby retired.

i don't think this is a permanent end to my hobby. but the ideas and creativity that have at least existed in my mind, whether they actually made it into the realm of palpable existence ... if you think something does it exist, or does it not exist until it is shared with someone else? .... they no longer inhabit the same space in my thoughts and hopes and plans ... it's like if my brain were a metropolis that was run by music the city has been vacated by the music. music still exists. music still runs city hall. music still lives in the boojy neighborhoods with the big gates and the fancy cars. but that's only one neighborhood. the best neighborhood, but not the majority of the city.

see, sporadic? i just liked that analogy so i ran with it.

anyways, i still like music, i'm just not really feeling like it needs to run so much of the show lately. i think i really enjoyed music as a companion because of the ups and downs that personal relationships are prone to. music is solid and will always be there. and will not be unforgiving should i let go for a while and decide to come back later on.

so adieu to sonic anarchy ... it was mostly about the dream anyways.

Contra Contrast

Sadly I won't be able to devote enough time to this post. Still, it'll prove a relief to get some of these thoughts out, and make room for new ones to be born, grow, and eventually mature to a point where they always want to borrow your car every friday night.

Last night's vampire weekend show in rochester raised a multitude of ideas and questions. From the beginning of my experience listening to vampire weekend I've always been quite intrigued by many facets of their existence. Friday evening only led to a number of interesting angles to think about.

For example, has vampire weekend reinvented the 'college rock' band? Judging from last night i would say yes. The mix of fans was very typical of what you would see at concert where the band's largest audience demographic is the 18 -22 range. Meaning, most of the people there were 18-22. This is not unique in itself, but looking more closely at who these people were, and by that, I mean what they wore, and general mannerisms it was easy to tell that these were not punk kids, they were not hipsters, they were not older post college faded rock glory folk, and not hippies.

They were a generation of in betweens, and since so many shows I go to are full of 'scene' kids, it was awkward experience to feel like the 'scene' of the night was vampire weekend kids. Why do i say 'vampire weekend kids', well because in my mind this distinguishes them from the 'oar' and 'guster' type college radio crowds. An overwhelming appreciation for opener's Beach House clearly indicated that the crowd was indie leaning ... i'm not sure what that really means, but it was meant to more clearly define the difference between those who listen to slightly off the beaten path pop, and those who tend to adventure a little bit further into the pop jungle.

Above all this is my interest in VW's ability to remain a credible band, shirking the sellout label that eventually every band who doesn't end up living in the drummer's mom's basement gets stuck with because the music they make is no longer 'real' once you've collected a paycheck for playing it.

There is no question that VW gets fat paid. A #1 album tells you that they got a few fans. In the past I've talked about how the music industry is learning to survive without big money. And that listeners are controlling the quality of the product, not boardrooms. So how does VW do it? How do they remain 'in' when it's 'out' to have mainstream appeal. A video starring jake gyllenhal, a bunch of obvious rich kids, and yet they are admired and adored for following the same steps that many of other bands have taken into the 'sellout dungeon'.

I guess I remain one of the admirers for now. They have definitely earned my respect for being able to balance the air of coolness and the legitimacy of a band as a profitable career. I suppose it's as easy as continuing to create interesting, and enjoyable music, huh?